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Ubuntu Linux-based Distro Lubuntu To No Longer Focus on Old Hardware (betanews.com) 85

Posted by msmash from the change-of-plans dept.
Lubuntu, a popular Ubuntu flavor, has gained traction over the years for supporting older hardware. As Brian Fagioli writes at BetaNews, one of the focuses of the Lubuntu developers is to support aging computers. However, that is about to change. He adds: When Lubunu 18.10 is released in October 2018, it will ditch LXDE for the newer LXQt. Despite it also being a desktop environment that is easy on resources, the Lubuntu developers are planning to drop their focus on old hardware after the transition. "[...] Our main focus is shifting from providing a distribution for old hardware to a functional yet modular distribution focused on getting out of the way and letting users use their computer. In essence, this is leveraging something we have always done with Lubuntu; providing an operating system which users can use to revive their old computers, but bringing this to the age of modern computing," says Simon Quigley of Lubuntu team.
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Ubuntu Linux-based Distro Lubuntu To No Longer Focus on Old Hardware

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  • providing an operating system which users can use to revive their old computers, but bringing this to the age of modern computing

    Pick one. You can't have both.

    • Can't you? I remember creating a Kali respin (non-PAE) for my old T40 and it worked fine.

    • I think being a Lite distribution their goal is to be able to run on modern light systems like small tablets. The old Lubuntu code will still be out there if you want to run this on your ancient computer, but this is a solved problem as far at Lubuntu goes, if they want to further develop it they need to shift their goals.

      • the entire post is just some editor talking shit. lxqt is just as light as lxde.

    • providing an operating system which users can use to revive their old computers, but bringing this to the age of modern computing

      Pick one. You can't have both.

      Sure you can. You can support oldish hardware without supporting really really old stuff. A raspberry pi is faster and has more memory than a 486. It makes no sense for anyone to support really really old desktop hardware. The cost of the electricity alone to run a 486 desktop for a year could buy a faster more energy efficient computer. There is some cutoff where continuing to support really old systems causes more problems than it fixes.

      • And running a modern desktop on a Raspberry Pi is like a "quick" trip to the DMV. There's no such thing. Modern Linux variants are painfully slow on the Raspberry Pi unless you cut out all modernity and restrict your options to software specifically catering for low hardware performance.

    • the title of this post is bs. i tested lxqt on manjaro its just as snappy as lxde. its just as fast as lxde. what going to happen is the removal of of 32bit.

  • Focus shift (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Our main focus is shifting from providing a distribution nobody uses to one that somebody uses. Also we would like it if people on IRC stopped laughing at us

    -Simon Quigley of Lubuntu

  • Sending users back to Windows XP. (Score:3)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @03:45PM (#57035202)
    Windows XP despite not being officially supported is still used widely in China and in enterprise with specialist software and hardware. Without giving people a Linux route for old hardware you send people back to proprietary software. I hope your happy "freedom advocates". Remember XP requires just a Pentium and 64MB RAM.

    • Re:Sending users back to Windows XP. (Score:5, Informative)

      by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @03:52PM (#57035250)

      hope your happy "freedom advocates". Remember XP requires just a Pentium and 64MB RAM.

      Slackware only needs a 486 and 64MB. [slackware.com] With 128MB and WindowMaker, the system purrs for the most part. Of course, that's not my daily driver.

      • then slack isnt going to have any packages soon as every distro and dev is doing away with 32bit.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aquabat ( 724032 )
        Last time I used Slackware, it needed significantly less than that, but that was back in 1999. My first Linux box was a Cyrix 486slc running Slackware 3.4, IIRC. I had 1 MB of RAM, a 512MB hard drive, and a trident 9000 video card in that box. It took me all night in the Physics reading room, at uni, to ftp it from ftp.cdrom.com onto 57 floppy disks, using the department's IBM 5150. Good distro.

    • Or they can use a different distro...

      And they can still use the last version even though its support is now limited. But it's still a lot newer and more secure and better supported than Windows XP.

      I have a pretty powerful computer running Debian Sid. Linux isn't solely used for old XP computers

    • If you can still use outdated, insecure Windows you can still use outdated, insecure Lubuntu. I see no difference here. Neither will run recent versions of Chrome/Chromium or Firefox. Neither get security updates.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Wolfrider ( 856 )

      > Remember XP requires just a Pentium and 64MB RAM

      --Give me a break, you can buy a halfway decent PC on Amazon Prime for under $100 these days and ship it nearly anywhere. Practically nobody is restricted to XP low-end specs anymore, and if you stuffed XP into 64MB RAM it would run like ass - even with an SSD.

      https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-... [amazon.com]

      --The Core 2 Duo even has HW virtualization in the CPU, FFS. With a 64-bit processor and 4GB RAM, you can do a low-resource Linux host with ZFS, and a small Virtua

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      But that is very slow. :(

    • Remember XP requires just a Pentium and 64MB RAM.

      It also will implode if you dare attach it to a network, instantly owned by malware. At the very least XP needs to be isolated until you install SP3. When you install SP3 you've got bugger chance of running it on 64MB of RAM.

  • low resources hw vs old hardware (Score:3)

    by 4wdloop ( 1031398 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @04:03PM (#57035336)

    Supporting old hardware has little to do with low-resource focused distribution (albeit it helps to be low resource on old hardware).

    Would it simply be just another desktop install option in Ubuntu then?

    For low-resource x86 hw there are other options, I personally like TinyCore. How about for arm hw (RPI etc.)?

  • For, if it does not any longer, it loses the essence of its motivation to exist in the first place - when it comes to being a resource hog, Gnome and KDE already excel in the Linux world.
    • Software --> Hardware, as discerning minds already gathered.

    • GUI apps on Linux generally work well regardless of which desktop you run them under, and which desktop is "native" for them. This is largely because of freedesktop's work on standardizing the relatively few desktop APIs needed, like tray docking and notifications.

  • Why not completely drop it then? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Suren Enfiajyan ( 4600031 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @04:19PM (#57035440)
    So why not completely drop it then replacing with Mate or XFCE? What advantages does LXDE have over XFCE or Mate?

    • I'd guess it's because Xubuntu (XFCE) already exists, as does Ubuntu Mate.

      They are continuing to package Lubuntu, but LXDE is now using Qt.

  • What is the value add of the Ubuntu part? Honest question. I appreciate that Ubuntu has popularized the Linux desktop, bringing it to millions of users who otherwise would otherwise be stuck on Windows or Apple, but since I went back to Debian, I've been happier. No more having update-manager doing dark and mystical things, then crapping out in the middle of upgrading to a new version for example. And what the heck is a "software channel"?

    For now, running both Debian and Ubuntu on different workstations and

  • fail title (Score:3)

    by luther349 ( 645380 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @04:59PM (#57035792)
    lxqt is just as light as lxde if not lighter. there switching to qt because gtk is become bloted.

  • NetBSD (Score:3)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @06:59PM (#57036852)
    There are many other OS to use on ancient hardware. Some cited Slackware, there is also NetBSD [netbsd.org].

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's not ancient! Jeeze we're talking about machines that were mainstream 20 years ago and had basically the same functionalities as the ones of today: network access, possibly even wifi, usb extension (sometimes 2.0 !), decent multitasking capabilities, a screen, keyboard and mouse.

      Ok they didn't have 64 Gb of RAM to run 3 instances of Chrome but they fared wall and for the most part they still do. The fact that internet browsing now requires gazillions of RAM and processing power is one of the main causes

  • Try FluXuan (Devuan) or Void (Score:3)

    by Artemis3 ( 85734 ) on Monday July 30, 2018 @07:33PM (#57037124)

    FluXuan [sourceforge.net] Is very light on resources. Boot to desktop and its using 68M only.
    Based on Devuan Ascii, you'll be at home if you are used to how Debian used to be, without the bloat.

    Of course you could also just use Devuan [devuan.org] with your favorite wm.

    If you don't mind being on the leading edge, there is also Void [voidlinux.org], which not being based on any other distro, doesn't have to share a sudden termination of 32 bit support.

    There are still many alternatives suitable for old hardware, perhaps take a look at Distrowatch [distrowatch.com].

    • Boot to desktop and its using 68M only.

      It's at times like this when I remember my Amiga 500 booting to desktop, and being just as functional as your Linux desktop, in 512KB. That's "kilobyte", and there was plenty space left over to run applications.

      Ok, technically that's cheating: the Amiga had much of its operating system, including the desktop, in a 256KB ROM. So we should be counting that as well, then...

      Now get off my lawn.

  • Explain to me how LXQt is not a lightweight distro. Go.

    • You're completely missing the point. "Our main focus is shifting from providing a distribution for old hardware to a functional yet modular distribution focused on getting out of the way and letting users use their computer." The important part here was that they are no longer going to give a crap about old machines. Yes, LXQt may be coincidentally lightweight, but doesn't mean old machines will be catered for in future.

  • P3-733Mhz (Score:3)

    by Crass Spektakel ( 4597 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2018 @06:55AM (#57040004) Homepage

    If support for old systems is dropped I will drop LXDE.

    My smallest LXDE system is a PentiumMMX 233Mhz, 192MB RAM and S3 Virge. I use it mostly for its rather rare Audio-Hardware which requires at least two fully ISA compliant Slots which later systems simply do not offer. While is overall quite sluggish it gets the job done with very little suffering.

    Another one is a Pentium III 733Mhz with 384MB of Memory and a Geforce 256. This one works pretty well with LXDE. While Applications take some extra seconds to start they work very well.

    I really like the lean approach of LXDE.

    If support for old systems is dropped I will drop LXDE.

  • still need PAE.

    I have a Fujitsu Lifebook from c.a. 2003 and the realization meant that there are a few systems left with true 32bit support.

    OpenBSD worked surprisingly well. Though any modern app is going to be slow on such a thing. The biggest problem is the 1024MB of RAM it has.

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